| From: | Chao Li <li(dot)evan(dot)chao(at)gmail(dot)com> |
|---|---|
| To: | Postgres hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org> |
| Subject: | Is this a memory leak in libpqrcv_processTuples()? |
| Date: | 2026-01-06 06:03:57 |
| Message-ID: | 5026D561-8A8E-4547-BA9F-E1499C47E77B@gmail.com |
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| Lists: | pgsql-hackers |
Hi Hackers,
I noticed a memory leak:
```
static void
libpqrcv_processTuples(PGresult *pgres, WalRcvExecResult *walres,
const int nRetTypes, const Oid *retTypes)
{
walres->tuplestore = tuplestore_begin_heap(true, false, work_mem);
/* Create tuple descriptor corresponding to expected result. */
walres->tupledesc = CreateTemplateTupleDesc(nRetTypes);
for (coln = 0; coln < nRetTypes; coln++)
TupleDescInitEntry(walres->tupledesc, (AttrNumber) coln + 1,
PQfname(pgres, coln), retTypes[coln], -1, 0);
attinmeta = TupleDescGetAttInMetadata(walres->tupledesc); <== attinmeta is not free-ed
/* No point in doing more here if there were no tuples returned. */
if (PQntuples(pgres) == 0)
return;
```
I understand that it is a common pattern where memory are free-ed automatically by destroying memory context. However, when I analyzed the usage of libpqrcv_processTuples(), I feel it is a memory leak.
A typical call model is like:
```
Caller of walrcv_exec() {
WalRcvExecResult *res; # define a local variable to store result
res = walrcv_exec(…); # walrcv_exec will return a result
-> walrcv_exec(…) {
WalRcvExecResult *walres = palloc0_object(WalRcvExecResult); # allocate memory for result
walres->status = WALRCV_OK_TUPLES;
libpqrcv_processTuples(pgres, walres, nRetTypes, retTypes); # libpqrcv_processTuples will fill in result
-> libpqrcv_processTuples(… walres …) {
walres->tuplestore = tuplestore_begin_heap() # allocate memory for tuplestore
walres->tupledesc = CreateTemplateTupleDesc(nRetTypes); # allocate memory for tupledesc
attinmeta = TupleDescGetAttInMetadata(walres->tupledesc); # allocate memory for attinmeta
}
return walres;
}
walrcv_clear_result(res); # free res object, nested tuplestore and tupledesc are free-ed as well, but attinmeta is leaked
}
```
We can see that, the result object is explicitly free-ed by walrcv_clear_result. But the memory pointed by attinmeta is leaked, it will only be free-ed when the corresponding memory context is destroyed.
As walrcv_exec() is widely called in a lot of places, it’s hard to tell in which memory context libpqrcv_processTuples() runs, so I think attinmeta should be free-ed.
But I then noticed that, attinmeta is created by TupleDescGetAttInMetadata() that allocates an AttInMetadata object itself as well as several nested objects, and there is not a function to deeply free attinmeta, thus a simple pfree(attinmeta) won’t resolve the leak problem. Does that mean we intentionally to not want to free memory of AttInMetadata?
So, rather than posting a patch directly, I’d like to confirm with folks who are familiar with this area. Is this a real memory leak worthing a fix?
Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/
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